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and Phoenician make
up the Canaanite dia–
lects. Professor Petti–
nato has labeled the
new language of Ebla
"Oid Canaa nite." as if
it were the ancestor of
Hebrcw. He may be
correct in this.
However, his iden–
tification is not likely
to go uncha llenged.
Other languages such
as Ugaritic (d iscov–
ered in 1929) have
been included in Ca–
naanite by sorne
sc h o l ars whereas
others d isagree. l f the
new Eblaite la nguage
is indeed the fat her or
grandfather of Hebrew, it is likely to
be of more significance for Old Tes–
tament studies than if it is mo re dis–
tantly related.
The question is not one that will
be answered eas ily. But it may very
well turn out that Eblaite is only the
grand-uncle of Hebrew rather than
the grandfather!
Perha ps o ne of th e more in–
triguing types of Literary material
among the tablets
is
a number of
d ictionaries. They give the Sume–
rían eq uivalents of Eblai te words
and vice versa. Their importance is
enhanced in that they he lp advance
knowledge of Sumerian as we ll as
give valuable help in deciphering
the new language. Their arrange–
ment is surprisi ngly modern. These
dictionaries were necessary since
Sumerian was a common Literary
language of the time even though
the people of Ebla did no t speak it.
New Data
The new texts have been studied in
only a preliminary way so .tha t no
more than hints of good things to
come can be given. However. the
fact that only preliminary work has
been done is itse lf reason lo be ca u–
tious with any really or apparently
new facts. (Sorne initial reports have
The
PLAIN TRUTH April 1977
SAUDI
ARABIA
not met the proper qualiiications of
ca reful scholarship.)
lt
has been reponed that a num–
ber of names weU known from the
Bible have turned up. One text
alone contains 250 geogra phical
names. Jerusalem (Ursalima) is sup–
posed to occur. The names of
Sodom and Gomorrah were also an–
nounced, though exactly how they
are written in the cunei form script
has not been shown. This is of great
interest since the names had been
known only from the Bible. Scholars
had not generally doubted the exis–
tence of these cities, but they are
now definite ly confi rmed as histo ri -
cal.
~
Pe rsonal names in the texts often
remind one of names of biblical
characters and may indeed be fo rms
of these names. These include Israel
(ish-ra-il).
Abram
(ab-ra-mu),
and
Saul
(sa-u-lum).
The name David
(da-u-dum)
is also reported. How–
ever, one hesitates at this identi–
fication since the name David was
also long believed to occur in the
Ma ri texts (from about the e igh–
teenth century B.C.). Later studies
showed this to be an incorrect read–
ing. Likewise. the name Benjamín,
which had o rig inally been identi–
fied in the Mari texts. turned out
to be a misreading.
The account of a
great ftood in Genesis
6 through 8 is no t
unique to the Bible.
It
is found in sev–
era( ancient Near East–
ern litera tures; the
Babylonian account is
well preserved a nd
has been known since
the la te nin e teen th
century. A ftood story
is also reported for the
Ebla tablets.
A number of the
geographical names
a re not actually iden–
tified as to location.
It
is on ly by inference
that they a re taken lo
be the same as names in the Bible o r
other ancient litera tures. However,
one tablet mentions an "Ur" in the
area of Haran. This is of consid–
erable inte res t since Genesis 11
shows that Abraham migrated from
"Ur of the Chaldees' ' to Ha ra n be–
fore going on to Canaan. Since the
discovery of a Sumerian Ur near the
Persian Gulf. most scholars have as–
sumed this was the Ur of the Bible.
Yet several have argued that "Ur of
the Chaldees' ' was actually a city in
no rthern Mesopotamia much nearer
to Haran. The Ebla listing now
lends further credence to this latter
theory.
The Ita lian scholars have an–
nounced most of their preliminary
findings with proper scienti fic cau–
tion. One example will ill ustra te
this. The name
Yahweh
for the God
of Israel seems unique. The wording
of Exodus 6:3 sugges ts that the
name
Yahweh
was unknown before
the time of Moses.
Yet sorne of the early reports
sta ted that the name
Yahweh
had
appeared in the Ebla tablets. After
Petti nato's lecture. he was asked
about this. He pointed out tha t "Mi–
chael"
(mi-ka-il)
occurs in a number
of texts.
( lt
probably meant "Who is
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